


Fleeting

by Griddlebone



Category: Magic Knight Rayearth
Genre: Dreams, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Omens & Portents, Reunions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-27
Updated: 2013-02-27
Packaged: 2017-12-03 20:16:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 958
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/702200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Griddlebone/pseuds/Griddlebone
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fuu reconnects with Ferio in the tenuous place where dreams collide. (Or, what if Rayearth II wasn't the first time Fuu returned to Cephiro?)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fleeting

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Demihime](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Demihime/gifts).



Fuu was dreaming. She had to be.

Only a moment ago, or so it seemed, she had laid her head down on her pillow and closed her eyes... And when she had opened them again, she had found herself _here_.

"Hello?" she called warily, shivering a bit against the cold.

No one answered her. The forest around her seemed filled with dark, threatening shapes in spite of the bright moonlight. A white, powdery substance that might have been snow - or ash - covered the ground up to her ankles. Fuu realized belatedly that she was not wearing her pajamas, but her school uniform. It seemed strange, but at least it meant she wasn't stranded in the middle of this strange dream land without even a good pair of shoes.

"Where am I?" she wondered aloud, even though she knew the answer. This place was unfamiliar, and no one was around to answer her questions, but she knew: she had somehow returned to Cephiro.

But if that was true, she wondered, then where were the other Magic Knights? Surely she would not, _could not_ , have returned without them.

"Hikaru?" she ventured. "Umi?"

The forest around her was deathly, unnaturally silent.

"Well," she decided after waiting a few minutes, "I can't just stand here all night."

But where could she go? Where _should_ she go? In her role playing games, there would have been some sort of cryptic sign telling her where to go next, but she could not discern any trails or paths through the forest, nor could she spy any other indication of what might be the correct path to take. Everything was obscured by snow. Hesitating, she wondered, "Which way would Hikaru go?"

She wasn't sure what Hikaru would have done, but gradually the thought came over her that perhaps she ought to head in the direction from which the moon was shining, away from the darkness. She glanced toward that darkness, but all she could see was a mass of shadows. They almost seemed to be staring back at her, as if they were living, breathing creatures rather than mere shadows.

Almost before she knew it, she was making her way toward the light. Snow puffed up into the air around her legs with each step, shimmering in the light. After she had been walking for a while, she decided to try her luck again.

"Hikaru? Umi?" she called.

There was still no answer and no sign of her friends, but she came to an abrupt stop. Her friends might still be missing, but there was no mistaking the line of footprints that cut through the snow in front of her. Someone else had been this way, and they had probably done so recently, since their tracks were still clearly visible. She did not hesitate, but turned from her course to follow the trail through the snow. At least, she thought, this trail would lead her _somewhere_.

As she picked her way carefully along, following the footprints to wherever they might lead, she became aware of something that gave her a moment's horrified pause. There were drops of blood on the snow, brilliant red against the black and white of the forest. Whoever had come this way before her had been injured. Unthinking of the potential danger, knowing only that if someone was hurt she _must_ try to help, Fuu hastened to follow the path laid out by the footprints.

She had not gone far before she came upon the person who had made the footprints, reclining bloodied in the snow against the base of a tree, and the sight froze her in her tracks. The person she sought was no mere stranger, it was someone she knew – someone very dear to her.

Snow swirled as she rushed to kneel beside the limp form, hardly daring even to look for signs of life. The words to summon her winds of healing caught in her throat; the magic wasn't there, it was gone, flown off to someplace she could not follow. Instead, she could only say, "Ferio!"

He opened delirious eyes to look at her. "Fuu?" he said, half question, half exultation.

"I'm," she started, and stopped. There were so many things she had wanted to say to Ferio, but all of them had slipped right out of her head. "I'm here, Ferio!"

Her cheeks heated. How foolish she must sound!

Then Ferio smiled and her heart broke.

"Fuu," he said, smiling a half smile. "I'm glad you've come. Cephiro needs you."

All of her questions came tumbling out at once, then. "Ferio, where are we? What's going on? Where is everyone else?"

Ferio's only answer was a sigh.

Overcoming her initial shyness, Fuu knelt beside him in the snow and wished again for magic. Or a first aid kit. Anything. "Please, tell me how to help."

"A shadow is falling over Cephiro," Ferio said, and closed his eyes.

The tattered remains of Fuu's heart seemed caught in her throat. "But what can I do? Without Umi and Hikaru… I am only one Magic Knight…"

Ferio did not answer, and then all at once darkness descended to swallow everything: the shadow he had mentioned.

"No!" she cried into the abyss, but it was too late. Ferio was gone. Cephiro – or whatever place that had been – was gone. She had the brief sensation of falling…

And a moment later Fuu opened her eyes again to the familiar darkness of her bedroom. She was home again, back in Tokyo as if nothing had happened.

Just a dream, she told herself, pulling the blankets tighter around her. It was just a dream.

Yet she wasn't surprised when Hikaru called the next morning, wanting to arrange a meeting with her and Umi.


End file.
